


Leave

by sunaddicted



Series: Tumblr Prompts 2020 [2]
Category: What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26332966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaddicted/pseuds/sunaddicted
Summary: Nandor barely remembered what it felt like to choke[...].His long-dead body remembered, though - seven-hundred-and-fifty-eight years after he had taken his last shuddering breath while a beast he couldn’t hope to slay had torn into his neck and taken his mortality away from him, Nandor’s body remembered how it felt like to be out of breath[...]
Relationships: Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless
Series: Tumblr Prompts 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654798
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Leave

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "things you said when we were the happiest we have ever been" (turning happy prompts into angsty ones kinda is the house specialty here)

_Leave_

Nandor barely remembered what it felt like to choke, for the chest to feel like it had caved in because of the sudden disappearance of lungs and heart while the throat spasmed and constricted around what essentially was nothing - just emptiness, absence.

His long-dead body remembered, though - seven-hundred-and-fifty-eight years after he had taken his last shuddering breath while a beast he couldn’t hope to slay had torn into his neck and taken his mortality away from him, Nandor’s body remembered how it felt like to be out of breath even if, biologically speaking, he didn’t need air anymore to survive and breathing was a mere reflex that had inexplicably endured while other vestiges of his humanity had been eaten away at by the incessant flowing of time.

It wasn’t really surprising that the feeling had been evoked by Guillermo: he had this strange ability of bringing out the most human parts of him, no matter how half-forgotten and anachronistic for the times they lived in - he _hated_ him for it.

It also was the reason why he clung to him - to his _humanity_ \- so hard: it felt good to remember that he had been someone before being turned into a creature of the night. If he turned Guillermo, who else would help him remember that once he had been more than a member of the living dead? No familiar before him had succeeded at it, it wasn’t enough to just keep around someone human - _it had to be him_.

And Guillermo wanted to leave.

Nandor remembered a time when the thought wouldn’t have even been the whisper of a breeze amidst Guillermo’s thoughts, when his devotion wouldn’t have allowed him to even consider a future without his master in it.

A time when they had been happier.

“You’re my familiar”

Guillermo shrank in his trenchcoat, only to regret it when the collar brushed against his neck and jaw, smearing cold and sticky blood against his clammy skin “What I’m trying to say-”

Nandor shook his head, put his palm up in the air - pleading, begging for Guillermo to stop while he hoped the other man saw it as a command, an order to obey “I don’t want to hear it!” The words tumbled rashly down his tongue, harsher than he had intended them to “You’re my familiar” the words weren’t actually meaningful, they described Guillermo’s status - the place he had in the household, as the only human residing amongst vampires.

The tone with which he said the words on the contrary, that was what the real deal was at.

Guillermo knew it, at some level of consciousness he was aware that Nandor was shitty with his words - that one had to read amidst lines and past verbal blunders of all kinds to get to the heart of what he really meant.

Guillermo was also tired of having to do all the work: standing in front of Nandor, covered in sweat and vampire blood and ashes, Guillermo felt exhausted - after all he had done to get to that point, everything felt meaningless “I can’t be your familiar anymore” it meant so much more than that: I can’t get you out of your coffin anymore when you’re scared of being stuck in it; I can’t play videos of glitter paintings when you’re upset anymore; I can’t braid your hair when you’re feeling fancy anymore; I can’t be the constant presence on your side anymore.

It hurt more than Guillermo had thought it would - even after leaving not once but twice, the finality in his statement still hurt.

Maybe he hadn’t really expected to actually go through with it, once and for all; maybe, deep down, he had thought that he would sweep in, save Nandor and that thing would change; maybe he had hoped to feel just as happy as the first time the vampire had uttered the words he was so desperately throwing at him now.

_You are my familiar._

Maybe it was a sign that he couldn’t pinpoint happier memories after the start of his servitude. There had been happy times, memories that Guillermo cherished in the depths of his heart, but somehow, they had all been slowly poisoned by the constant miasma of death and mistreatment around him while the thought that Nandor wasn’t going to turn him slowly sneaked into his consciousness and flowered like deadly nightshades.

“I don’t care that you’re a vampire killer!”

“You don’t care or you don’t mind?”

“I’ve been held hostage, I’m not in the mood to quibble and quabble over words!”

Guillermo sighed “Squabble”

Nandor waved his hand in the air “Squibble, squabble. Care, mind. Quid pro quo. What’s the difference?”

At that point, none: it was just word vomit “I just need to leave, Nandor”

“Why? You owe me an explanation!”

“Like you owe me a death?”

The vampire pursed his lips in what he was sure Guillermo would define as a pout - he wasn’t pouting (just like he wasn’t this close to hyperventilating - he couldn’t be, he couldn’t really breathe afterall) “I said I would turn you, you’re just very impatient”

“Eleven years-”

“-are a blink of an eye for an immortal”

Why was he surprised that Nandor was trying to spin his refusing to turn him into some kind of exercise to teach Guillermo patience? Didn’t he know the other by now, almost as intimately as he knew himself? “It doesn’t matter, I need to leave”

“You’re my familiar, Guillermo - until I release you from my service, you’re mine” Nandor stepped closer, putting his cape on the other’s shoulders - it was already ruined anyway “You’ll still be mine while you’re away and you’ll be mine when you come back”

Guillermo tightened the cape around himself, shivering despite its weight and lining of furs: he never knew how different “ _you’re my familiar_ ” and “ _you’re mine_ ” could sound - he never knew he had needed Nandor to say the latter over the first.

He still turned away.

There were things he needed to work on before he could be back.

**Author's Note:**

> First time posting something I have written for these two, I hope you like it!


End file.
